There is a really difficult Piccolo solo in Chimes of Liberty that I have been stuck with playing! The tempo is 130, cut time. They are mostly 8th notes, all staccato. Darn you, staccato.
Anyway, I can play it at 100, cut time.. And it is still pretty fast. There are octave jumps, and I am playing many of the highest notes possible (Bflat, A, G) and it is killing me. And my ear.
Now.. The song itself is pretty easy, so people are like, "Why can't you get it?"
It is just hard to play that fast with octave jumps.. And staccatos.
Does anyone know of any exercises that could help me get the higher notes out better, faster, and shorter? I have been playing piccolo for 4 years now, so I am not a 'beginner'.
Thanks for any help possible (:!
Piccolo Solo in 'Chimes of Liberty'
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Piccolo Solo in 'Chimes of Liberty'
[Blabbed the Suji]
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fluteguy18
- Posts: 2311
- Joined: Sun Jul 16, 2006 3:11 pm
I played this solo about a year ago at an honors band clinic. Are you playing the original, or an arrangement? From the way you have described it, it sounds like you are playing the original [the same one I played]. Basically, all that i can recommend, is to practice [if you have the book] one of the excercises in Moyse's 24 little melodic studies. it is on page two, and focuses on octave jumps.
The trick that I used to play it [we played it slightly above tempo] was to double tongue the entire thing. I know that it is a daunting solo to learn [ a real beast, and I was only given a little more than 1/2 hour to learn the thing
].
So, I would do double tongueing exercises, octave jump excercises, and I would actually work on whistle tones and long tones to work on a flexible embouchure [having a flexible embouchure is VERY helpful in pieces like this one where the music jumps around].
Also, remember to keep your throat open, and sometimes that helps.
But, as far as articulation... when music is that fast and that ridiculously crazy, really, all the composer wants is clean articulation. So, if you can, double tongue it [slow it way down, then speed it up when you practice], and just keep it clean. At those speeds, if it is clean, it will sound staccato. So, just keep it clean, and dont worry about staccato.
Good luck on this thing. I honestly think it is more of a beast than Stars and Stripes, which is a monster in and of itself.
The trick that I used to play it [we played it slightly above tempo] was to double tongue the entire thing. I know that it is a daunting solo to learn [ a real beast, and I was only given a little more than 1/2 hour to learn the thing
]. So, I would do double tongueing exercises, octave jump excercises, and I would actually work on whistle tones and long tones to work on a flexible embouchure [having a flexible embouchure is VERY helpful in pieces like this one where the music jumps around].
Also, remember to keep your throat open, and sometimes that helps.
But, as far as articulation... when music is that fast and that ridiculously crazy, really, all the composer wants is clean articulation. So, if you can, double tongue it [slow it way down, then speed it up when you practice], and just keep it clean. At those speeds, if it is clean, it will sound staccato. So, just keep it clean, and dont worry about staccato.
Good luck on this thing. I honestly think it is more of a beast than Stars and Stripes, which is a monster in and of itself.